For brand leaders in pharma and biotech, the annual brand planning cycle represents one of the highest-stakes moments of the year. Here, you forge strategy, win budgets, and define the next 12-24 months of competitive performance.
But the reality is, for many teams, the pressure to deliver comprehensive plans within tight timelines forces template-driven approaches that feel disconnected from strategic thinking. Instead of driving strategic clarity, the process becomes a draining, spreadsheet-filling exercise that produces plans that feel more obligatory than inspired.
Insight as your ABP backbone
Annual Brand Planning (ABP) should not feel like a reinvention exercise every year, particularly for established brands. Instead, it should be a moment for the cross-functional team to step back, reflect on the past 12 months, and assess what those learnings mean for the year ahead.
Your team should take the time to deeply understand changes in the external environment. Focus on the questions that matter:
• What are the economic, political, or system-level dynamics that may influence your brand? When will that happen, and how?
• How has – and how will – the competitive landscape evolve specifically around your brand’s position?
• How do you expect key competitors to be positioned for share gains?
• How should you be preparing for competitive threats on the horizon?
• What are your sources of growth, and how is your strategy designed to capture them?
• Where is market share still untapped, and why?
Equally essential is a robust understanding of customer attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. How and why they are changing, and how can you position yourself to profit from those changes? Additionally, are there any situational factors that could shape future prescribing?
Gathering data and insights is critical to understanding and addressing these key questions and issues. They are the foundation for a successful ABP process, not stand-alone elements. Starting this work early is critical, especially when the quality and availability of data will influence the depth of your brand and market insight.
Turn cross-functional alignment into your competitive advantage
A process built on spreadsheets and siloed inputs inevitably creates friction. The resulting outcome is a disjointed strategy lacking focus and clarity, often highlighting one-off tactics that do not strengthen, nor tie back to the brand’s strategic imperatives. This lack of coherence and strategic direction leaves brands vulnerable to competitive threats and risks demotivating your team because there is no clear strategic roadmap.
In contrast, an ABP grounded in shared, validated insights becomes the ultimate catalyst for cross-functional alignment. Leveraging a cross-functional team in the ABP process yields a cohesive, resonant brand story. Such an ABP transforms insights into robust, measurable strategic objectives; guiding and focusing resources to build a position of strength and unifying your team around a single mission. A strong cross-functional ABP process energizes your team because it is grounded in a clear brand vision, informed strategic choices, and meaningful future tactics.
Furthermore, when cross-functional teams come together for workshops dedicated to the ABP, the impact is greatest when senior team members facilitate the workshops. Their involvement signals importance and ensures stakeholders take the process seriously.
The most successful ABP sessions share one characteristic: every participant understands how their functional expertise connects to the bigger strategic narrative, which transforms routine input-gathering into genuine strategic collaboration.
Tell a great story
“Stories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.”1
But how do you tell a compelling story when you’re working within a mandated ABP template? Templates are helpful. They ensure you include the essential components. But they should never constrain your ability to build a narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Not everything in the ABP needs to be presented. Part of effective storytelling is deciding what to elevate and what to keep in the background.
A tailored approach that delivers results
Your brand’s challenges are unique. Your planning support should be too. At CRA, we bring 25+ years of life sciences strategy experience to help you transform your annual brand planning process. Whether you’re navigating a complex competitive landscape, preparing for a loss of exclusivity, or building a brand from the ground up, our senior-led teams can help you design a tailored process that directs time and resources where they matter most. We’ll work with you to ensure your planning delivers both strategic clarity and executable outcomes while energizing your team and giving you confidence to secure budgets and lead with conviction.
Contact
Frances Hendry is Vice President at CRA’s Life Sciences Practice, where she guides pharma brand teams through strategic planning transformations that deliver measurable results.
Reach out to Frances to discuss how you can turn your ABP process into a competitive differentiator.
1. Gardner, H. (1995) Leading minds: An anatomy of leadership. New York: Basic Books.
— Quote appears on p. 43: “Stories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.”
